Haryana police links suicides with summer

A 'study' done by a group of policemen without any expert's guidance, the State Crime Record Bureau (SCRB) of Haryana police has linked the suicides with summers and hot climatic conditions.

In an official release issued on Wednesday, Laik Ram Dabas, the director, SCRB, stated that since hot weather disturbs the hormonal balance in one’s body and tolerance power etc, it leads to people committing suicide.

It also advises citizens to take note of individuals with imbalanced behavior in view of the summers.

Dabas told Hindustan Times that the 'study' was done by the crime record office (CRO) led by an inspector rank officer.

No psychologist was involved in the exercise, he confirmed.

Psychologists have trashed the report as “baseless” and without any scientific background.

Dabas said that in 2012, a total 2827 suicides cases were reported in Haryana out of which 2071 were men and 756 were women.

“As per the crime records, the hill states of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh have a suicide ratio of 2.5 and 8.4/lakh population. In higher temperature zone of central state of Madhya Pradesh (12.9), West Bengal (16.4) and extremely warm states like Kerala (25) and Puducherry (40 per lakh population). It clearly shows that hot weather has strong relations with suicidal tendencies among the individuals,” said Dabas, an additional director general of police rank officer.

He said the study was based on the basis of data collected from the police stations of Haryana and others state.

No study was conducted on the psychological behavior of the victims who ended their lives under different circumstances, he confirmed.

However, chairperson of department of applied psychology, Guru Jambeshwar University, Hisar Dr Jyotsana said that the issue of people committing suicides is a comprehensive issue and should be handled by experts.

She said that suicides were committed due to psychological conditions and the reasons cannot be generalized.

Another pyscologist at the GJU, Dr Sandeep Singn Rana, termed the 'study' as "unscientific."

Rana said that SRCB should have taken this more seriously than they did; an issue like suicide is a very sensitive matter.

"Large number of suicides in hot areas may be a crime trend but it has no scientific basis. Climatic conditions do affect the individual’s negative behavior but suicides are committed due to psychological disorders," he said.

Rana said that since hormonal changes were a biological issue and not psychological, it cannot be attributed to suicides.